{"id":92557,"date":"2025-08-18T19:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T19:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/92557\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T19:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T19:16:08","slug":"guest-opinion-humboldt-is-aware-enough-to-recycle-but-what-about-the-pollution-created-by-our-recycling-bins-lost-coast-outpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/92557\/","title":{"rendered":"GUEST OPINION: Humboldt is Aware Enough to Recycle, But What About the Pollution Created by Our Recycling Bins? | Lost Coast Outpost"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Shards of recycling containers collected by the author in McKinleyville. Photo: Dan Levinson.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve probably seen the
\nsmudges and lines of what looks like light blue paint on the streets,
\nalways in front of garbage containers or where they have recently
\nbeen. A closer look reveals that it is blue plastic rubbed off the
\nbottom of recycling and garbage receptacles when they are dragged by
\nservice trucks. You might have also noticed curlicues of plastic
\nbeing stripped from the bottoms and sides of the bins, either from
\nabrasion on the streets or from the large metal forks that move the
\nreceptacles. Though nearly all the scuff marks are on street
\nsurfaces, the one in the picture represents a container being dragged
\nalong an elevated curb. I include it here because it\u2019s the
\nclearest example from several photos taken over a few years. The
\nother picture shows curlicues and scraps I\u2019ve collected on my
\nneighborhood walks in McKinleyville.<\/p>\n


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The telltale blue streak on the curb. Click photo to enlarge.<\/p>\n

\tIt
\nmight be unrealistic to expect Recology \u2014 our laudable cleanup and
\nrecycling enterprise \u2014 or any other company on the planet that works
\non this large scale, to replace their containers, at least in the
\nshort term. However, I\u2019ve written this piece in an attempt to get
\nthe ball rolling, hoping that others will join my voice for change.
\nAt this point in our collective ecological consciousness, it is
\nglaringly known how toxic and pervasive plastic is. I don\u2019t need
\nto detail how its overuse, alongside other devastating practices such
\nas blithely hopping on airplanes for vacations, is destroying species
\nand habitats. (This world traveler hasn\u2019t been on a plane since
\n2019 \u2014 but that\u2019s another article.)<\/p>\n

\tFour
\nyears ago I brought a small bag of the blue shavings to the Recology
\noffice, simply to share evidence that a company with such a name is
\nactively creating
\nplastic waste headed directly into the gutters and then the ocean.
\nThe employee I spoke with was just about polite, but I got the sense
\nthat she thought me a weirdo and I was pretty sure that little bag
\nwas headed straight for the trash and not to any future meeting
\nregarding clean practices. From there I contacted a couple of people
\nat the Northcoast Environmental Center, emailing images of smudges
\nand streaks on the streets, as well an image of the shavings. Our
\ncommunication went well enough in the moment but did not lead to any
\nchange.<\/p>\n

\tSurprisingly,
\nI have not found references to any cities having addressed plastic
\nwaste generated from recycling and trash bins. I have come across
\nthe suggestion to apply protective coatings (but of what?) to a bin\u2019s
\nunderside or placing a buffer material between the bin and asphalt.
\nMight the arms of the metal forks get a rubber wrap to avoid cutting
\ninto the plastic? Could Humboldt County set a precedent in trying to
\nsolve this? Arcata\u2019s city council, after all, was the first in the
\nnation to have a Green Party majority. My friends and I, naively,
\nused to refer to Humboldt as Ecotopia \u2014 but the county still sets
\nstellar examples of different environmental practices. Just think of
\nthe transformation that became the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife
\nSanctuary.<\/p>\n


\n\tWhat to be done, then? Recology
\nmight respond if citizens visit their office with little bags of blue
\nplastic shavings, followed up by letters, phone calls, and photos.
\nWe could make a sculpture of plastic bits and set it in the Arcata
\nPlaza to replace President McKinley, akin to the Artula Institute\u2019s
\nWashed Ashore project: you may have seen the elaborate sculptures
\nfashioned from ocean waste on display in Bandon, Oregon and
\nelsewhere. Perhaps most effectively, Recology could put an employee
\nto the task of sorting this out. In the meantime, I\u2019ll keep
\npicking up trash on my daily walks and talking to kids about good
\npractices as I teach my poetry residencies. The steps to be taken
\nrange from small to global. For instance, it\u2019s hard to imagine
\nthat any readers are still buying sponges made with petroleum-based
\nplastic \u2014 which means choosing to put plastic directly into their
\ndrains \u2014 when alternatives are sitting right next to them on our
\nstore shelves. The kids know what\u2019s happening and they wonder when
\nthe adults will stop sleepwalking.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Dan Zev Levinson is a teacher and a poet. His website is zevlev.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shards of recycling containers collected by the author in McKinleyville. Photo: Dan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-92557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}